007 Siblings, Fountain Pen
That night, Room 117, Building F, Jiaotong University Dormitories.
A high ponytail swayed under the desk lamp. Gu Qing sat bolt upright as always, her simple, fair hand holding a Pilot ELABO Falcon fountain pen, leaving rows of elegant script on her notebook with a soft scratching sound.
A plain white T-shirt with a cartoon squirrel print, slightly faded light-blue denim shorts, a Vivo phone whose protective case was starting to peel…
In comparison, Gu Qing’s daily setup might seem mismatched with the ELABO pen, which cost over 1500 yuan. But judging by her penmanship, this pen, with its brush-like soft and springy feel, was well-suited for someone like Gu Qing who had some skill in writing.
“Gu Qing, you’re not sleeping yet?”
“!”
The two-person dorm room was quiet. The roommate’s sudden words, though not loud, gave Gu Qing a little start.
She quietly patted her chest and turned her head.
“I have a paper due soon. You’re one to talk, Wang Li. Aren’t you also… eh? Are you going out?”
“Hehe.”
Wang Li gave a mysterious smile and said nothing, continuing to apply this year’s trendy slim-tube L04 lipstick in front of the mirror.
Gu Qing didn’t know much about lipstick, but she could roughly guess the purpose of Wang Li’s outing based on the color.
“We had experiments this week. I haven’t seen my boyfriend in days. I’m going to give him a surprise tonight~”
Just as Gu Qing expected, Wang Li was going to see her boyfriend. After finishing her lipstick, she eagerly grabbed her small handbag and did a final check in the full-length mirror. While evening out the powder on her face, she didn’t forget to chatter.
“Little Qing, with your great qualities, when on earth are you planning to get a boyfriend?”
“Sometime in this lifetime.”
Whenever her roommate asked this question, Gu Qing’s reply was always cold and emotionless.
“If you wait until after grad school to find one, it won’t be so easy. Your standards will unconsciously get higher, you’ll stop believing in love, you’ll become cynical, and then…”
“Alright, you’re being a mother hen again.”
Gu Qing felt she couldn’t focus on her notes anymore. She put down the pen and started flipping through the pages of a book.
Boyfriends and girlfriends all the time…
I really don’t know what’s so great about them…
“Of course it’s great~”
Wang Li overheard her quiet mumble. She leaned over Gu Qing’s shoulder and whispered in her ear.
“Classmate Gu Qing, please don’t be an armchair critic. Stop hindering others from pursuing happiness, okay?”
“Me? An armchair critic?”
“Your little brother.”
Wang Li rolled her eyes at her and picked up the photo frame on Gu Qing’s desk.
“What’s his name? Qin Ren, right? Having such a handsome little brother who dotes on you so much, supporting you through your studies and your grad school entrance exams, sending you such an expensive pen as a birthday gift even when he’s struggling himself…sigh, of course you’d look down on us common folk.”
“What nonsense are you talking about… Give it back.”
Gu Qing frowned slightly, snatched the photo frame back, and placed it back on the desk. She stole a glance at it; it seemed a reflection was obscuring someone’s face, so she adjusted the angle before lowering her head to her book again.
“He’s my little brother. It’s normal for a little brother to be nice to his older sister… Go find your boyfriend. I need to study.”
“Alright, alright. Your Ladyship may study at her leisure. This servant takes her leave.”
Wang Li gave a mock curtsy, then left humming a little tune. In the once again silent dorm room, it wasn’t until ten minutes later that a soft click was heard.
It was the sound of the photo frame being picked up.
Another ten minutes passed. Click. The photo frame was put down.
But the scene in the photograph lingered in Gu Qing’s mind for a long, long time.
…
The girl in the blue and white school uniform with a cold expression hadn’t changed much to this day.
The slightly naive-looking boy beside her, grinning broadly, had matured a lot, but he was still tall, still handsome, and still silently stood by her side.
This should have been a very good thing.
But since when, exactly, did she start to get the illusion that the distance between the two of them was gradually widening whenever she occasionally looked at this photo…
Gu Qing had no answer to this question in her heart.
Thinking it over and over, only a single name from the past flashed by.
…
The words on the page gradually started to jump around. The phone call with him from the daytime seemed to replay in her ears. Gu Qing rubbed her eyes. Her mind was in a mess, but she persisted for a while before finally closing the book and going into the bathroom.
Whoosh—
After half an hour of running water, a beautiful, slender figure emerged wrapped in a bath towel. Her exquisite face was dotted with water droplets, slightly flushed from the heat.
Siblings…?
She glanced at the moon outside the window and suddenly felt a chill. She quickly slipped on a small, cyan nightdress, turned off the light, and climbed the ladder to her bunk. After a few minutes of hesitation, she took out her phone and dialed that familiar number.
Beep—
Beep—
After two rings, Gu Qing suddenly seemed to remember something. She glanced at the time on the screen and hastily pressed the end call button.
“…”
The entire dorm fell silent again. Gu Qing pulled the blanket tighter around herself and closed her eyes. Who knows how much time passed, but when she opened them again, a clear, watery sheen had appeared in her eyes.
Right, she’d almost forgotten. Her roommate wasn’t here tonight.
She got up and climbed down from the bed.
From its familiar spot, she picked up the photo frame and the pen he had given her from the desk. After tossing them both onto her bunk, Gu Qing placed one foot lightly on the ladder while her right hand pulled a Vinda baby wipe from the desk.
She paused, then pulled two more.
After climbing back into bed, she gently propped the photo frame against her pillow.
Under the faint moonlight, the rustling sounds seemed somewhat shy. The cool touch of the fountain pen in her hand quietly traced along some delicate, undulating curves, gradually warming up along with her skin…
“Qin Ren…”
It was a careful, soft call that only she could hear. Her lips first trembled, then were bitten.
In the air, thick with a faint fragrance, an increasingly ambiguous atmosphere grew.
In the eyes that stared infatuatedly at the photo frame, the shimmering moisture at their depths grew more and more intense. Until, at the moment of a sudden shudder, warm teardrops rolled down like a thread onto the pillow. Gu Qing murmured his name one last time and fell into a deep sleep…
——————————
On the other side, Longhu Residential Community.
Where is this…
Can’t… breathe…
“Ah—”
A nightmare attacked Qin Ren at 10:40 in the morning. Thinking he was experiencing sleep paralysis, Qin Ren sat up with a start, drenched in sweat, as if rising from his deathbed.
“So heavy… Is it really sleep paralysis?”
Qin Ren looked down and saw a lump hanging from his neck like a koala. A faint cyan bruise circled his neck.
“Shibal…”
Qin Ren’s face turned green. If he were a child or a woman, he might not have woken up.
He looked again at the culprit stuck to him. It shifted uncomfortably twice, then wore a look of contentment.
“Heh… This eminence eats people in my good dreams…”
The moment she spoke, he knew it was the old Cao Cao. Qin Ren peeled Luo Yao off, which actually took quite a bit of effort.
It seemed this unconscious brute strength was another trait of the Pixiu.
“Get off me, you unlucky kid!”
Luo Yao rolled over, then quickly scrambled up on all fours like a gecko, baring her teeth in a fierce expression, which seemed to be some kind of beastly instinct.
“Who dares?! Ow, ow, ow—!”
“Sit up!”
Seeing the ashen-faced Qin Ren, the little girl pouted and obediently knelt at the head of the bed.
“Explain. What happened?”
“That sofa by the door is too hard. This eminence couldn’t sleep…”
Qin Ren didn’t think that was a valid reason.
“No matter how hard a sofa made with modern industrial techniques is, could it be less comfortable than what you slept on in the Flowing Cloud Sect?”
Actually, it really was less comfortable.
“In the sect, I manifest my true form. I have fur…”
“…”
Alright, to be fair, the fabric sofa wasn’t very soft. He’d get her a softer cushion another day.
After all, even though Luo Yao was a centuries-old monster, her body was still very young, and her skin was incredibly delicate.
But that was for later. Qin Ren tilted his head back and pointed at the bruise on his neck.
“Who did this?”
Luo Yao blushed and said nothing, lowering her head to stare intently at the pillow.
“It… your neck drilled into it on its own.”
“You’re lying.”
“Qin Ren, you’re being mean to me again.”
“…”
Qin Ren felt a sense of unreality. He had truly never imagined that the legendary Pixiu would be like this, with absolutely no imposing aura. Arguing with her was like hitting cotton—powerless and dull.
